With 60.15 percent of the election protocols counted, Poroshenko
is leading the race with 53.72 percent of the votes cast,
according to the Central Elections Committee. According to
Ukrainian law, a single round of voting is enough for a candidate
with more than 50 percent of votes to win.

Poroshenko is one of the richest businessmen in Ukraine. He has
been dubbed the Chocolate King because of the fortune he has made
in confectionery, worth more than $1.3 billion. Unofficially,
Poroshenko also controls Ukraine’s Channel 5.

“He is an oligarch and people here are saying ‘Has this
revolution not come full circle?’” RT’s Paula Slier reports
from Kiev. One of the things participants of the so-called
EuroMaidan movement protested against was too much involvement of
big business into Ukrainian politics. Now it turns out another
oligarch can become the country’s leader.

Poroshenko earlier appeared to be ready to give up his wealth for
political victory, promising to sell his business right after
elections are over.

“Concerning my business: right after this [election], there
will be a contract signed with an investment company that will
search for a buyer,” Poroshenko said as quoted by RIA
Novosti.

Poroshenko’s main election rival, ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko of the
Batkivschina (Fatherland) Party, who has called for having a
referendum on Ukraine’s accession to NATO, has garnered 13.09
percent of the vote, according to early counting.

Tymoshenko reacted to the preliminary results by saying that she
is “ready to cooperate with the winner to build a strong
Ukraine.” Earlier in May, the Batkivschina leader blasted
all the Ukrainian channels as being owned by oligarchs, calling
her supporters to fight for their choice and even threatening to
call “Maidan 3.0” if she loses the election.

All other candidates
gathered less than 10 percent of votes each, with anti-Russian
populist Oleg Lyashko, the head of the Radical Party, running
behind with 8.47 percent, former defense minister
Anatoly Gritsenko taking 5.47 percent and expelled Party of
Regions MP Sergey Tigipko – 5.24 percent of votes. The candidate
picked by the Party of Regions of the ousted Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovich, Mikhail Dobkin, gathered just 3.37
percent.

Around percent voted for
Ukrainian Communist Party leader, Pyotr Simonenko, despite his
recent announcement that he had withdrawn from the
elections.

Ultra-right radical
nationalists appeared to have completely failed in the elections,
with Svoboda (Freedom) Party head Oleg Tyagnibok securing 1.17
percent of votes and Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh less than
one percent.

‘First, I will tour Donbass’

Poroshenko’s UDAR party, whose leader, ex-boxer Vitaly Klitshko,
decided to withdraw from elections in favor of the oligarch, has
started celebrating victory even as the official vote count began
at 8pm local time (5pm GMT). Incidentally, Klitshko is likely to
have his moment of glory later at Kiev mayor’s elections, where
he is the indisputable favorite, according to ratings.

As the results of exit polls emerged, Poroshenko delivered a
speech outlining his plans for the near future as president.

“My first presidential trip will be to Donbass,”
Poroshenko said at a party briefing, using the popular name for
the historical region in eastern Ukraine.

“We can now state firmly and with confidence – the whole
Ukraine cast its vote, this is the choice of the whole
Ukraine,” he said.

Poroshenko also thanked “thousands of Crimeans” and
“hundreds of thousands of Donbass residents” for taking
part in the elections. It was not immediately clear if the
assessment matched the reality, as the vote was effectively
disrupted and/or boycotted in eastern Ukraine, where
anti-election rallies took place Instead. Several hundred Crimean
Ukrainians indeed took part in the election after having been
transported to the closest ballot box in a city bordering the
Russian region by buses.

According to the prospective winner, parliamentary elections will
be held in Ukraine before the end of 2014.

Speaking on the possible outcome of the raging political crisis
in Ukraine, Poroshenko promised that “we will have a united
and unitary, not federative state.”

Poroshenko claimed that his first “decisive step will be
aimed at ending the war, ending chaos, and bringing peace to a
united and free Ukraine."

"I am certain that our decisive actions will bring fairly
quick results," the 48-year stated without clarifying what
these “actions” would entail, as earlier it was announced that
Ukrainian troops are to resume what Kiev calls an
“anti-terrorist” operation in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko is certain that he will meet his counterpart Vladimir
Putin, once official results are made public.

“We cannot discuss
the seriousness of security in our region without the
participation of Russia. We will find the format and definitely
will meet Putin."

Earlier, Poroshenko noted that he will recognize neither the
results of the Crimean referendum, in which the vast majority of
Crimeans voted for joining Russia, nor the referendums held in
several eastern regions, which resulted in the proclaiming of
Donetsk and Lugansk as “people’s republics.”

A UK-based journalist, blogger and writer Neil Clark believes
that - if elected – Poroshenko will face a big challenge in
rebuilding bridges with Russia.

“Ukraine needs a good working relationship with Russia, its
biggest trading partner,” Clarke told RT. “Of course
it’s heavily dependent on Russian gas. And so he [Poroshenko]
needs to go to Moscow and meet President Putin and get relations
back on a much friendlier footing than they have been since the
disastrous collapse in relations.

“But the trouble is, if he does that – and he needs to do
that – than he’ll have the hawks in Washington undermining him.
And we already heard his rival, Ms. Timoshenko, who’s called for
demonstrations of the Maidan if the results did not go her way.
And so we could get this situation where [Poroshenko] could get
under the same kind of pressure as [ousted president] Mr.
Yanukovich did”.

Election ‘valid’ despite boycotts, violations

While the vote count is still underway, Ukraine’s Central
Elections Committee has announced that the presidential elections
have taken place and are valid. Some of the regions were unable
to vote, but the country’s laws have recently been changed to
allow presidential elections regardless of the turnout in any
particular region.

With around 35.5 million Ukrainians eligible to vote – some 5.1
million are registered in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, which
recently held referendums and declared their independence, saying
the presidential race in a neighbouring state was none of their
business now.

Despite their announced boycott and protests, the Ukrainian
Central Elections Commission said that according to preliminary
results the turnout was 12.09 per in Donetsks region, compared to
the announced average 60.65 percent throughout the country.

All in all the regional administration in Donetsk said only 426
of 2,430 polling stations in the region were open Sunday. Sources
in Donetsk city administration told Ria Novosti that elections
did not take place in large parts of the region –23 cities and 6
districts.

In the nearest future the “active phase of the anti-terrorist
operation” will resume in the restive regions, the first
deputy PM of Ukraine Vitaly Yarema vowed, claiming that Ukrainian
armed forces have completely blocked off parts of the areas under
the control of the self-defense forces in Lugansk and Donetsk
regions.

Ukraine’s army has only temporarily halted its active actions,
Yarema said, “so that the residents of the eastern areas could
get to the polls and vote.”

Yet despite the promised calm, a number of armed clashes
involving Ukrainian troops have been reported in the east of
Ukraine on the day of the vote. The so-called
“anti-terrorist” operation with the involvement of air
forces and armored vehicles has been dragging for several months
now, with dozens of people killed in the shelling – many of them
civilians and even international journalists caught in the
damage.

In the meantime, while the election officials and international
observers say the vote went without major violations, videos and
photos have started surfacing online showing the facts.

The press Service of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported 19
violations, which they claim all happened in the turbulent east
of the country.

The OSCE monitoring mission of 1,200 observers from 47 countries,
so far have not reported any violations. Their full report on the
election process is due to be released later on Monday.